Playing to social strengths

A dank, dreary and grey January does not generally lend itself to a picture perfect sun-filled sojourn from the Big Smoke to the stunning English countryside. But on this occasion, it very much did. With a select group of food and drink London-based journalists and restaurant social media influencers, we visited the UK’s leading winemaker and home of English wine, Chapel Down – a notable supplier to one of leading restaurant clients, Florentine Restaurant & Bar.

The sky was eerily blue, bursting with a bright yellow sun, shining like it was the middle of Summer. Creating the ultimate back-drop – it set the scene for a social media frenzy! iPhones at the ready #nofilterrequired, our party of press had a field day, and for this, I was grateful, as our restaurant social media channels filled up thick and fast with colourful creatives, to be shared and liked from all that saw.

On top of gaining first-hand experience from our extremely knowledgeable tour guide on the secrets of vini culture, the unique terroir of Kent and the rewards and challenges of producing a world class range of sparkling and still wines – we quickly learnt that an all-day wine tour and tasting in idyllic surroundings was definitely sufficient to ensure social media remained centre stage of the entire press trip, by way of telling a story from start to finish and sharing the experience of a really fabulous trip to the Kent countryside.

We do of course very much look forward to reading the blogs and feature articles that will follow the trip written by our friendly journalists but ultimately, the ‘right here, right now’ posts that peppered our client’s social media feed on the day, garnered sufficient conversation to get other London restaurant foodies chatting, curious as to where we were and what we were doing. Just goes to show how the sharing of strong social media content can serve as a major driver to raising awareness and ultimately engagement with a brand. More important now than it has ever been, particularly in amongst the London restaurant social media scene.